Ed Harris is lining up his third directorial outing and will adapt Kim Zupan’s neo-noir novel crime thriller The Ploughmen to star Owen Teague, Nick Nolte, and Bill Murray.

Concourse Media will introduce the project to international buyers in Cannes this week. 

Production is scheduled to begin in Montana in autumn, with Amy Madigan and Lily Harris also on the cast.

Harris, Ginger Sledge, Claude Dal Farra and Brian Keady of BCDF Pictures, and Robert Knott are producing, while Matthew Shreder and Grant Mohrman serve as executive producers.

In the vein of Hell Or High Water and Wind River, The Ploughmen takes place in the wilderness of Montana where a strange friendship develops between a haunted young deputy sheriff and a murderer.

Nolte will play John Gload, a killer so adept at his job that only now has he been apprehended. Val Millimaki, portrayed by Teague, is a deputy in the Copper County Sheriff department with an unlucky streak of finding dead bodies.

When the sheriff (Murray) puts Millimaki on night duty to try to get Gload to reveal his past, the law officer feels a kinship with his prisoner and seeks his counsel.

Harris, who previously directed Appaloosa and Pollock, said: “Been trying to get this film made for a while. It’s worth the wait to tell this intriguing story with a great cast and crew and the beauty of Montana.”

Harris most recently starred alongside Kristen Stewart in A24’s Sundance and Berlin selection Love Lies Bleeding, and the SXSW comedy drama film My Dead Friend Zoe.

Teague stars in 20th Century’s Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, which just opened top of the global box office on $129m,

Nolte is a three-time Oscar nominee most recently seen in Rian Johnson’s limited series Poker Face and his credits include Affliction, A Walk In The Woods, Cape Fear, The Prince of Tides, and Walter Hill’s 48 Hours.

Murray starred in the Ghostbusters franchise and among his credits are The French Dispatch, Lost In Translation, and Rushmore.

Concourse’s recent sales credits include Chief Of Station starring Aaron Eckhart and Olga Kurylenko; Sovereign with Nick Offerman and Dennis Quaid, and The Little Hours with Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, and John C. Reilly.

Concourse Media and CAA Media Finance jointly represent US rights.